Note: 1st
Lt. Alfred L. Butler IV is the stepson of Joe Peagler, Rail-Highway
Safety Coordinator for ITD’s Roadway Design Section. Peagler was
a close friend of Butler’s father who was killed Feb. 8, 1984,
while serving in Beirut, Lebanon, as part of an American peacekeeping
mission. Peagler married Butler’s mother, Molly, when the youngster
was 5; they have since divorced. The award recipient is in his third
tour of duty with the Marines in Iraq and has served about four years.
Like his father and stepfather, he is a career Marine.

Peagler retired from
the Marines after 23 years of service in 1994 as a Lt. Col., stationed
at Camp LeJeuene, N.C. He has worked at ITD since 1998, including a
lengthy tenure in the Office of Traffic and Highway Safety. Peagler’s
son, Matthew, graduates from White Oaks High School in Jacksonville,
N.C, on June 13 and reports four days later to the Marine Corps Recruit
Depot, Paris Island, S.C.

* * * * * * *

By Mark Sixbey, Marine Corps News
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq - A Darkhorse Marine was decorated with the nation’s
fourth highest award for valor by the 1st Marine Division commanding
general here, May 19.

“I knew his father, and I think he’s following
in his footsteps,” Natonski said. “This is his third deployment
to Iraq, and he’s done a marvelous job over here.”

The
27-year-old from Jacksonville, N.C., earned the award for his actions
and leadership while commanding an 81mm Mortar Platoon on Dec. 23, 2004,
during combat operations in Fallujah. He is currently on duty in Iraq
with Regimental Combat Team 5.

“It was one of those days when everyone ran out
of ammo,” said Butler, a graduate of Western Carolina University.
“We even used AK-47s.”

According to the award citation, as insurgents ambushed
his platoon, Butler rushed to the attack where he found several men
pinned under heavy automatic weapons fire on a stairwell. He evacuated
them from the house and learned insurgents isolated additional men on
the second floor. He quickly organized an assault force and raced to
an adjacent house under constant small arms fire to recover the men.

Cpl. Justin Butler, a mortarman in the platoon, saw his
platoon commander from across the street while laying suppressive fire.

“When we were on the roof, he was the first one
I saw standing up to see the situation while everyone was getting shot
at,” said the 21-year-old from Dyer, Ind. “It pumped everybody
up that he would do that just to know everything that’s going
on.”

The platoon commander led his team as it cleared two
buildings, jumping from roof-to-roof to reach them. He shielded the
bodies of the fallen Marines when a grenade landed nearby with complete
disregard for his own safety, then threw two grenades into a room filled
with insurgents.

While delivering cover fire, Butler moved the men across
to an adjacent rooftop, personally evacuating a wounded Marine under
constant small arms fire and grenade attacks. His actions preserved
the lives of the men.

Butler credited the decoration to the Marines under his
command.

“I owe those Marines my life,” he said. “The
things they did that day are the sort of things you read about in books.
What they do for each other and what they sacrifice for each other makes
you not want to leave the Marine Corps. They hold up the tradition of
3/5 and live up to the legacy.”

Alfred Butler III, was a Marine major who was killed
in Beirut when his son was only five-years-old. Butler said most of
what he knows of his father he learned from Marines who served with
him.

“It’s nice that he knew my father and served
with him,” he said. “My knowledge of him as a person is
through people like General Natonski and what they say about him and
the man he was. From what I understand, he was a great man, great Marine,
husband and father. If I can be half of that, I think I’ll be
fine.”